You’ve seen the infomercial before. Men and women prancing around, showing off their super-toned abs and butts, that they supposedly achieved by working out just 7 minutes a day! Why would you spend hours each week on a treadmill when you could look this good with a super-quick fix? they ask.
Deep down, of course, you know it’s all smoke and mirrors. Nobody just wakes up one day, magically looking like an Abercrombie & Fitch model after a few six-minute sessions. While there probably are a few people out there that were blessed with bionic genes, most of us would need to endure years of rigorous training at the gym and choke down more salads and protein shakes than we’d care to count.
Telling success stories has been media’s favorite. We love reading how someone made $1000 in just 6 minutes. Or how a boy from chawl became a billionaire. We love to place ourselves in those moments of glory when the hero rises. And wonder why life has been unfair at giving chances to us. We wonder what happens in between. Those phases in which that successful person say they didn’t give up. We are reminded of how those inspiring quotes never worked for us. Of how sometimes they tricked us into believing that our stupid idea was THE thing. Of how traveling didn’t help us ‘explore’ the possibilities of the universe but only burnt holes in our pocket.
And then, we excuse ourselves with reasoning.
‘If only I found the right person, right job, right contact, started at the right time.’
“Most characters in inspirational stories are crazily headstrong and doubts hardly suffocate them. But the reality is that every dreamer until they achieve something is almost on the verge of giving up. This is the toughest phase of dreaming that in every popular story is easily overlooked,” says Ketan, a film-maker.
He talks about his film – Rhoya. A film that talks about the phase that is in ‘in-between’ when you start and when you achieve what success means to you.
“We sketched Rhoya – an optimistic dream-seller, who time-and-again has to face her own demons – those moments when she wants to give up.”
Rhoya has been trying to sell a unique product called the Magic Dream Box for the last 6 years now. But she hasn’t succeeded in convincing anybody that it is any good. With her intellect and qualifications she could have been earning more and be living a comfortable life, but she decided to stick to her dream and it seems like she is ruining her life. She is constantly seen in conversation with a strong desire to give up but an even more strong passion for helping people dream, innovating and making a difference.
Rhoya, in her journey, does a few practical preaching. She tells us how it is YOU who is responsible for your success and failure, and not the right opportunity.
“People find a lot of things to blame when they fail — the unaccepting society, their responsibilities and worst of all — luck! Nobody is special and nobody is lucky. If you work hard and in the right direction, success is the only result. Therefore, we want to bring to the fore, success stories where people have done all the right things and have hence, achieved success. And re-iterate the fact that if you haven’t made it, that’s probably because YOU screwed up”, Helly, lead actress of the film [also the producer] says.
The concept was ideated and picked by a bunch of graduates from SIMC grads, who crafted the story and decided to make a film around it – Rhoya.
And now, they need money to be able to make the other half of the film.
“Martin Scorsese once said that there is no ‘industry’. There are stories, there are people who want to tell those stories and there is money that is required to make them. That’s all! We have the story, we have the required skill-set and now, we need the money to make it happen. We’ve poured in all our savings (earned during our time as students and therefore, little to begin with) to come this far! We don’t want to approach big production houses for funding because it will hinder the integrity of the story and the independence of our vision!”, says Ketan.
The team needs our backing to bring the Rhoya inside everyone of us come alive. They are currently doing a crowdfunding campaign for the same, of which we urge you to contribute your bit.
One more dream achieved, one more internal battle fought and thousands to be inspired – That’s what Rhoya can do. That’s what you can do.
I want to help the team bring Rhoya to the screens.
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